The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-08-11
IN THE GREAT WEST,
A Perigrinating Preacher Paints Pixies
Peak on Paper.

MANIToU SPRINGS, COL, Aug. 8, 'S7.
Ed. CITIZEN anitou Springs is
the Saratoga of the west. Iron, soda
and various other mineral springs
abound here. The improvements
are superb. A large number of very
fine and fashionable hotels, two
churches, dozens of the handsomest
cottages and several livery stables,
stores and groceries, and an i'm
mense bath house-these all con |
spire to make up tasteful and |
aristocratic little town strung along
Engleman Canon for mile or
more. This canon is several miles
long and very deep and the springs
here are crowded every season.
Some 1900 visitors are here now l
suppose. From here tourists make
the ascent to Pixies Peak. Here
also they see the Garden of the
Gods, the Cave of the Winds and
the grand caverns and dozen 9TH
er places of curious interest. / ar
rived yesterday afternoon, too late
to make it to the Peak, so remained
over and made the trip to-day. 1t
is just thirteen and one-half miles
to the summit and can only be as
cended by foot or horseback.
Our party this morning consisted
of twelve gentlemen and two ladies,
all mounted on horses with long
yellow gum overcoat strapped On
behind each saddle in which each
one had placed his lunch. 1t takes
five and half hours to go up
and four and a half hours to de-
scend, making a ten hours ride of
81 miles and remaining on the Peak
only one hour. The gum coats are
indispensable as it rarely fails to
rain or snow or storm, though we
had perfect day and the weather
behaved perfectly until on our re-
turn when some five miles down
the mountain we saw that the snow
storm was raging on the Peak, but
we were safe from it. Tourists al
ways dress in the toughest clothes
they can get and wear cheap hats,
usually Is cent straw hats. A
party of Pixies Peak tourists is 3
primitive looking set | can assure
you, and a far worse looking crowd
on the latter half of their return
trip.
l am long time getting to the
point, so without further clrcumlo-
cution will just say that any man
who undertakes to write up Pixies
Peak ought to do SO before he
makes the ascent, or at fsctherest,
during or just after his upward
journey. Never wait, friendly
reader, until you return from the
Peak and have alighted or been
helped from your horse and have
= made your way to your room at
your hotel. If you wait that long,
wait longer; for the sake of Pixies
Peak I beg you. The return trip
will take every ecintille of senti-
ment out OF any man. l would not
, sell my trip for one hundred dollars
this minute, but / would not repeat
! it to morrow for one hundred. The
, average return Peak tourist, though
> just emerging from the most gor-
; geous and picturesque scenery eyes
: ever beheld, looks as if the Hottest
r sentiment to which be could posi-
+ bly, lay claim is ''what fools we NOR
: tails be-"
+ Why, sir, only a we'll trained
9 horse can stand the trip. We had
two guides to-day and the livery
q proprietor thought be you'd let one
q of the guides ride new horse tina
had never made the trip as he de-
sired to begin training him as {
trail horse fer the Peak trips. Tha
n horse broke down at the end Of th'
6 first five miles and the guide had tt
| leave us to make the trip in charge
4 of one guide while he walked bacl
n and drove the horse. We made si1
/ or eight rests going up, but l d.
4 not see how any horse ever carries
t man up that hill. For 134 mile
: you are ascending and your road il
a a narrow trail never anywhere wild
enough for more than one horse
y walk in and frequently 1t is no
, more than from eight to twelv'
n inches wide and that sometime
, along the edge of an almost perpen
!. dicular precipice two hundred fee
II deep, at the bottom of which a bolC
q mountain stream dashes madly OF
q among huge powders which lin
+ the bottom of the gorge or canon.
i For the first three or four mile
l. of the trip this stream forms one o
the most attractive features. Form
. ed by the numerous riVulets which
" come from the melting snow whicl
i fills the gorges of the mountain
= sides, it gradually increases in siz
!. till by the time it enters the En-
4 gleman canon it is 3 large, rapit
+ stream and it's fantastic didos dow
q that awful gorge for at least foa
5 miles ere truly picturesque. Tn
o grade is very steep down which i
9 rushes but its course is one contin-
g uous interruption for the whole dis
III lance. It is q most irregular ant
s picturesque chain Of cascades o
o falls. Here it rushes madly in full
% volume over an immense bowlde
8 making in it's fall seething lake o
y the whitest foam. There it's fate i
# TO make sudden fall of some twen
. ty or thirty feet but this time no
o over smooth-worn bowlder but
Y pile Of myriad shaped small ones
Il and its volume OF water thus turne'
and scattered and seemingly made
+ furious by its fate, falls on the mos
y angularly shaped bowlder which
q scatters it into millions Of crystal
. which leap out in all direction
i glistening beautifully in the sun
a light. Again there is a succession
o of falls, the first rush it makes from
cliF CT rock, being broken again
d by protruding ledge few feet be
: low, and then again and again unit
! after many buffettings st last i
Il overspreads messy dell as many
q colored sheen sparkling and dane
. ing in the sunlight from which fin
4 ally goes forth the same STREAM
IS again reorganized and longing to b
q at peace with the world. Occasion